The importance of Gualtiero Bassetti’s nomination

The Archbishop of Perugia who was recently nominated cardinal has also been appointed deputy president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference

Giacomo Galeazzivatican city

The newly-appointed cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, a man who is appreciated for his simple style and pastoral open-mindedness, has now been appointed deputy president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference by a large majority of votes. He was one of the few who didn’t need a second ballot.

“The Pope did not feel bound by the custom of selecting someone from the dioceses where cardinals traditionally come from,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told Vatican Insider. Whether from Perugia, the Philippines or Haiti, prelates were all selected on the basis of their traits not according to customs and tradition.”

On Sunday evening, the Archbishop of Perugia drove himself to the Umbrian town of Foligno to take part in the clergy’s spiritual exercises. “We will go on as normal,” the prelate of Tuscan origin told those working with him. “I came as a complete surprise,” he admitted.

On 22 February he will be officially created cardinal in Francis’ first Consistory, along with 18 other prelates from 12 countries. Bassetti’s surprise nomination left others who were believed to be strong candidates, on the sidelines. The only other European residential archbishop in the Francis’ new cardinals list is England’s Vincent Nichols.

Bells tolled loud in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Perugia when the nomination was announced. After 160 years, Perugia finally has another cardinal representing it: It was 19 December 1853 when Mgr. Gioacchino Pecci was created cardinal and almost a quarter of a century later, on 25 February 1878, he was elected Pope, taking the name Leo XIII.

Mgr. Gualtiero Bassetti was born in Popolano, in the Province of Florence, but in the diocese of Faenza-Modigliana, 71 years ago. He has a great deal in common with his illustrious predecessor Gioacchino Pecci who went down in history as the social reformer Pope and the worker’s Pope. In the encyclical Rerum Novarum, Pecci laid down the foundations of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine. As a pastor, Mgr. Bassetti has a great sensitivity towards social problems, particularly as regards employment and the disadvantaged.

During his brief but intense Episcopal ministry in the Diocese of Massa Marittima-Piombino (1994-1999), he stood by families working in the steelworks that were experiencing a tough crisis. He was also close to workers during his time as Bishop of Arezzo-Cortona-San Sepolcro, before being nominated Metropolitan Archbishop of Perugia-Città della Pieve on 16 July 2009.

On Sunday he expressed gladness at the “recognition” Umbria had received from Pope Francis and commenting on the nomination of the over 80 year old non elector cardinal Loris Capovilla, he said it echoed the proposals made during the Second Vatican Council.

Bassetti’s nomination is of particular significance for the Italian Bishops’ Conference as the Pope is considering giving the Conference the power to elect its own president. This would require a modification of its current statutes.

On his way to Foligno, where he was due to attend the spiritual exercises of the local clergy, Bassetti said “these spiritual exercises will help me keep calm and digest what has just happened. This “joke” the Holy Spirit has played on me still hasn’t sunk in.” The bishop still hasn’t had a chance to speak to the Pope. “I will try to do so in the next few days but I am at his disposal,” said. His nomination as cardinal does not mean he will be changing his pastoral style. “I am everyone’s bishop and I will be everyone’s cardinal, with just a few more commitments maybe. My aims have not changed. I want to visit factories and hospitals, because as the Pope says, we must “be pastors with the odour of sheep.” “This is the time to roll our sleeves back.”

Bassetti has been nominated cardinal of an archdiocese which according to diocese bureaucracy and the media is of low-importance. Meanwhile, Turin and Venice, two Italian dioceses that traditionally come with a red hat, remain without a cardinal for now.

Any career planners in the Church who had the path from the seminary to the cardinalship set out very clearly in their minds will have to think again.